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I write out of my own concern about the work environment at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and because it is a situation that I think the taxpayers that fund LBNL should be aware of.

The Coalition of University Employees has filed a grievance with the Lab on behalf of a female worker (who prefers to remain anonymous) documenting the verbal and physical harassment that she has been experiencing for over three years. Previous to this grievance she had, on numerous occasions, contacted her supervisors and upper level management about the situation and was told to “work it out with him (her harasser).” The alleged harassment has included verbal attacks and physical intimidation including blocking her into her office and violently slamming doors. In one incident a manager in her department allegedly told her “if you don’t shut up, I’ll slap you.”

Despite the duration and severity of this harassment and the fact that numerous witnesses can attest to its validity, the Lab management has offered no resolution to the situation at the first two steps of the grievance process. The Lab’s lack of effort in remedying this harassment comes at a time when they have also come under fire for other issues of harassment and discrimination. The Lab recently settled a lawsuit that showed that it had illegally performed medical tests on African- American employees that were not performed on other employees. Not a good record for our National Laboratory.